I had the opportunity to interview Tom Harper, who in charge of marketing at Avidyne. He told me more about the new MLX770 datalink product, but also about future products. 2009 will be an interesting year on the glass-cockpit market…

PlasticPilot: The MLX770 brings two way communication on board, and can be used for METARs, TAFs, NOTAMs, wind and temperature charts, worldwide. Can you tell us more about how the project started? Does it comes from user’s requests, or is it an idea from your engineering division?

Tom Harper: The MLX770 provides a highly-reliable next-generation two-way datalink capability for general aviation aircraft to get world-wide datalink weather, flight tracking, and SMS text messaging.

Datalink was an emerging technology in the late 1990s and Avidyne was clearly at the forefront in bringing it to market. Several ground-based services were beginning to surface including AirCell and NavRadio/B/K (both of which are not in use now), and Avidyne saw that they had severe limitations including altitude restrictions, poor coverage areas, and a high cost of implementation of their infrastructure.  Avidyne realized early on that satellite technology was the best delivery mechanism for datalink weather, and with few affordable satellite options at the time, chose ORBCOMM’s two-way satellite constellation to launch a datalink offering.

Avidyne became the first to certify satellite datalink for light general aviation back in 2002 with our integrated-datalink EX500 and EX5000 MFDs, using the two-way ORBCOM satellite datalink network. This system was available for MFD customers in the contiguous United States (CONUS) and included datalink weather, flight tracking, and a text messaging feature that was very innovative and well received in the market. At that time, the broadcast-capable satellite from XM and Sirius were just being launched and they did not offer aviation weather products.

Once XM began offering aviation weather products over their high-speed broadcast satellites, Avidyne became the first manufacturer to certify the display of XM Satellite Datalink Weather in light general aviation aircraft (in 2004) and subsequently, Avidyne built and was first to certify a Sirius Datalink Receiver, the Avidyne MLB700 (in 2007). Now, with the new MLX770, Avidyne has replaced ORBCOMM with a much more reliable and predictable IRIDIUM system that provides two-way satellite datalink weather, flight tracking and SMS text messaging service.

Utilizing the advantages of the two-way and broadcast datalink systems, Avidyne also developed the concept of MultiLinkT.  In the CONUS, Avidyne’s exclusive MultiLink capability leverages all the advantages of the high-speed broadcast data stream of Sirius (or XM) along with the two-way capabilities of the global IRIDIUM network and Avidyne’s MLX770 to provide the best datalink solution available. Through advanced software implementation, Avidyne’s EX500 and EX5000 MFDs automatically gather high-speed datalink weather through the MLB700 broadcast channel, and use the MLX770 two-way Iridium channel for text messaging and flight tracking services. If the pilot flies fly out of the CONUS broadcast coverage area, the MLX770 automatically gathers the international weather and sends it to the MFD.  And if there is a broadcast system outage, the MLX770 two-way system will automatically retrieve CONUS weather, providing a real-time fully-redundant back up.

PlasticPilot: The MLX770 also offers two ways SMS communication. Is that just a positive side-effect of using Iridium, or was it part of the project from the beginning?

Tom Harper: As mentioned above, Avidyne was first to certify a two-way text messaging solution for light GA with its ORBCOMM datalink, however it was limited to messaging via a dedicated web portal.  By moving to the IRIDIUM constellation, the MLX770 can takes advantage of Iridium’s SMS text messaging capability, which means we can now communicate directly to/from email addresses and compatible SMS-capable mobile phones.

PlasticPilot: Iridium also offers voice-call and internet services. Can we expect such services on board soon?

Tom Harper: The MLX770 is a single-channel data-only transceiver.  We have not made any formal announcements about future products or technologies that might leverage these other capabilities.

PlasticPilot: What for feedback do you get from pilots flying the Entegra-equipped aircraft ?

Tom Harper: I know several people who actually got their IFR rating in Entegra-equipped Cirrus aircraft.  The transition from “steam gauges” to glass is really pretty easy because of Entegra’s straight-forward user interface. Entegra was designed to make flying easier by assimilating all the information in a more useable presentation.  The biggest challenge I hear from people is the transition from round dial Altimeter and Airspeed gauges to the vertical tape instruments on these all-glass systems. However, most pilots get the hang of it within a couple hours of flying.

PlasticPilot: What is your favorite feature of the Entegra flight deck? What do you think is still missing in it ?

Tom Harper: Entegra’s nice wide horizon and features like 6-second trend vectors for air data, and a full-time wind velocity vector reduce the “mental gymnastics” by the pilot.  What’s missing is what’s next (see below).

PlasticPilot: Your competitors offer products which integrate the GPS / NAV / COM receivers, and sometimes autopilot and audiobox as well. Does Avidyne prepare such a product, or will you continue to act as an integrator around your PFD / MFD system ?

Avidyne was first to certify big glass for light GA with the launch of Entegra in 2003 at Cirrus. This is considered a “first generation” big-glass system that integrates the six 3-inch instruments (6-pack) into a more useable package, along with an exceptionally reliable Air Data and Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) that replaces the “spinning mass” attitude and directional gyros. Entegra still relies on a ‘federated’ radio stack (dual G430s) for GPS/NAV/COM capability, as well as audio and transponder.

Competitive systems came along with a slightly higher level of integration; essentially the Garmin 430s and transponder faceplates were removed and the units were remote-mounted, and the buttons and knobs are now integrated into the two big-glass displays.  This so-called 2nd-generation system has a higher degree of “bezel integration” which provides some level of space and aesthetic benefit in the cockpit, but the user interface is much more difficult, as it relies on soft keys, pop-up windows, and hierarchical menus in order to operate the system. Even though it’s a 2nd-gen system, the G1000 also still relies on the aging technology of the 10+year old GNS430s for GPS, COM and NAV. G1000 touts a “big red button” reversionary mode on the G1000, which only helps in the event that you lose the backlight (which is highly reliable) on your PFD or MFD. But according to their own pilot’s guide for the system, if you lose a PFD on the G1000, you also lose COM/NAV1 and autopilot capability. If you lose the MFD screen on G1000, you also lose COM/NAV 2 and the autopilot. If you lose a GIA63 (remote GNS430), you lose a PFD (or MFD), and autopilot, and manual electric trim in some cases. When you push the big red button you also lose datalink weather on both displays.probably when you need it most.

With the current Entegra system, a loss of PFD doesn’t take out your autopilot. And a loss of MFD doesn’t take out your autopilot. Other advantages of the current Entegra configuration over G1000 is the fact that
you have 4 screens in the airplane instead of just two, so in the unlikely event of a failure of one of the displays, you always have three others, so you don’t lose your moving map, your traffic display, or your lightning display as you would on G1000. Loss of an Entegra PFD doesn’t take out your datalink weather or autopilot or traffic or lighting or manual electric trim.

Avidyne has sneak-previewed its next-generation Entegra system at recent trade shows, which includes its fully-integrated 16-watt VHF NAV/COM radios, and our WAAS-capable FMS900w with ACD215 Control/Display Unit. This 3rd-generation system uses all new radio and FMS designs, and features a highly-robust dual data bus architecture that virtually eliminates the failure mode scenarios described above. More details will follow in the coming months, but you can bet we are on target to bring a truly new system to market in 2009.

Avidyne is all about “Flying Made Simple” and this system is designed to make your single-pilot IFR flying safer and easier.

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